Councils' future a decision for all Wellingtonians

5 October 2009
Media Statement

Councils’ future a decision for all Wellingtonians

Any decision to amalgamate or reorganise local government within the Wellington region must be made by all Wellingtonians, not dreamed up and imposed by the Wellington City Council, Rimutaka MP Chris Hipkins and Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson say.

The MPs were responding to comments by Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast claiming that a Wellington Super City was inevitable by 2013.

“The future of the Wellington region’s local councils is a matter for the local communities concerned. Everyone needs the opportunity to have their say. The last thing we need is some ‘top down’ scheme dreamed up by Wellington City Council,” Chris Hipkins and Grant Robertson said.

“The National/ACT government has badly botched consultation on the Auckland Super City and I’d hate to see the same mistakes repeated in Wellington. Local support for any change will be critical and any changes shouldn’t be rushed through the way they have been in Auckland,” Mr Robertson said.

“A recent Shape NZ poll found that around half of New Zealanders do not want a ‘super city’ in their area. Even more telling, 70 percent of New Zealanders say that any ‘super city’ plans should be put to a referendum or vote before being implemented. That clearly hasn’t happened in Auckland.

Chris Hipkins said that any reform of local government in Wellington would fly in the face of promises made by the National Party before the election.

“Before the election the National Party specifically promised the people of the Hutt Valley that significant changes to local councils weren’t on the agenda. National needs to honour that promise. If change is to be made it needs to be driven from the grassroots up,” Mr Hipkins said.

“If Kerry Prendergast’s goal is to demonstrate how the rest of the region would be overlooked by a super-council dominated by the inner-city, she is going the right way about it. The last thing the people in the Hutt Valley will want to see is all of the decisions affecting their local community made at the Wellington Town Hall.

“Last year I attended a forum on public transport where a Wellington City Councillor argued public transport services to the Hutt Valley shouldn’t be improved because people should be encouraged to move into inner-city apartments instead. If that’s the kind of ignorant thinking that we’ll see from a so-called ‘super council’ I doubt residents of the region’s suburbs will want a bar of it,” Chris Hipkins said.

ENDS